Bussell s



UNITED' STATES PATENT.

Priest R SSELL s. PENNIMAN, on JENKIN'TOWN, rnnnsrnvanm, assrcnon or ONE-HALF ,TO JOHN G. SGHRADER, OFMGCAINSVILLE, NEW JERSEY.

PROTECTED NIIRATE OFAMMONlA toe USfiiltlEjXPLOSll/E communes;

SPECIFICATION forming pm of LettersPatent $30,312,010, dated February -10, 1885. V I ApPlichtion filed November 30, 1883. (No specimens.)

To all whom/ it mayc wernr a Beit known'that I, Russia, S."PEN'N'IMAN, of Jenkintown, in the county of Montgomery and Stateof. Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Protected- Nitrate of Ammonia for use in Explosive Compounds; and I do hereby declare that the following specification is'a clear, true, and w should- :be either grounder grannlated, ,al-

- complete description of my invention.

iej It is well known that the deliquescent or hygroscopic nitrates of which the. nitrate of ammonia is the most prominent havcheretofore been employed with various ingredi cuts in the manufacture of explosiverc'om- 1 pounds, and that said nitrates have been 4 combined with such solidrfatty or waxy bodies solid fatty or'waxy matters, when combined as heretofore with the nitrates, as protecting agents, result in a practically solid mass of protected nitrate, which can only be'fitted 'for use either by grinding -or melting; and the objectEof my invention is to not only securely protect nitrate-of ammonia against deliquescence, but to maintain-it in substantially its normal disintegrated condition, so as to'afford a new article of manufacture and trade suited for ready use in the manufacture of high explosives, and enable the immediate admixture thereof with any of the well-' known explosive substances or compounds heretofore employed.

To those ends my invention consists in protecting nitrate of ammonia in a granulated or in an otherwise divided condition by jacket,-

or fluid or semi-fluid carbonaceous substance which will also serve as acarbonaceous'element in explosive compounds embodying my protected nitrate, and I use petroleum or any of 'the well-known heavy viscous educts or products thereof which have the capacity of readily inclosing or enveloping the particles of nitrate by ordinary methods of mixing,rasdistinguished from. the melting or grinding processes heretofore necessary in the gradients have been employed for obviating'the ing the particles then of with a-softor viscous prior use of paraifine, stearine, naphthaline,

or other similar solid waxy or fatty bodies. It is obvious that for use in explosive compounds the nitrate,thus protected against deliques'cence, should be in a condition which will enable it to be readily compoundedwith other 'bodies -as, forinst'ance, prior to .ap- Q plying the protecting medium the nitrate thoughthela'tter is'preferable. For granu- 6o l'a'ting saidnitrate', Iproceed, in a manner-well :k'nown to chemists, to subject a quantity of said nitrate in its solid or'crystallized commercial form to a melting temperature in a suitable vessel. I then transfer itto a vessel provided with a water jacl-zst, and then con tinuously stir-the mass, while the temperature thereofis steadily reduced until, by the combined eiiect ofcooling' and stirring,the nitrata/ as a carbonaceous element in such explosive compounds as it may thereafter be employed I can obtain good results by the use of crude petroleum; but the protecting media best suit;

ed for my purpose are the heavy educts or products of petroleum inn fluid, semi-fluid,

or viscous or soft condition, and in its appli- 'cation tothe nitrate the percentage above named should obviously be varied, more or less, according to the consistence of the protecting' medium, it being understood that said medium must be in such form as will enable 9;) the coating of the nitrate without that necessity for grinding or trituration or the melting operation heretofore essentially incident to the prior useof paraffine, stearine, and other solid fatty orwaxy substances.

With a view to the greatest economy I use a petroleum, or, in lieu thereof, the soft residuary matter obtained from petroleum-stills, but at a slightly greater cost. 1 prefer to use such well-known soft educts or products of mo petroleum as are known under various namesas, for instance, cosmoline, V3581l118,' paraffine-butter, and parafiine-jelly-all of which are well suited for my purposes, and I deem them preferable to petroleu1n,m ainly because they have no offensive odors'and are free from earthy matter.

The protected nitrate of ammonia as described somewhat, resembles moist brown sugar, and is readily distinguished from any prior preparation of such nitrates of which I have knowledge, and it is not liable to become connection with explosive salts which are in -'a finely-divided condition, because the soft viscous and oily coating of the nitrate enables it to be all the more readily and evenly commingled with such salts; whether with or without'the'previous admixture of said sa1ts,with an additional quantity of the same viscous protecting medium, to serve 'as'a carbon ele ment, as set forth in a prior pending application for Letters latent filed by' meMay 3,

1883, Serial No.s 93,751.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent Nitrate of ammoniain a finely-divided or in a granulated condition, protected against deliquescence by a coati'ngof petroleum or'its soft and viscous educts or products, substari-= tially as described. I

' .BUSSELL s. PENNIMAN. Witnesses:

G. Mxru'su, MARY W. MIAEHER. 

